Lemonade News | Summer 2014

We haven’t started to talk much about our 2016 Lemonade for Love event, yet, but one thing we do hope is that the kiddos think BIG and dream BIG this year. That’s where change begins, right?

Thinking big, and daring to dream big, takes guts. You have to be brave to dare turn your wild imagination into reality!

I had the opportunity to speak with the folks over at TIFF about the Lemonade for Love event and the kid volunteers. We spoke of how fabulous the kids are and about our desire to encourage them to start thinking BIG. Allow the kids to dream up wild ideas for their event. Do they want to serve up purple lemonade? Should they bring in a mariachi band!?

The folks at TIFF kindly invited a handful of the volunteers to this year’s digiPlaySpace media launch. This is a place entirely dedicated to thinking BIG.

Why is it important that the kiddo’s attended the media launch? Because they were able to meet and mingle with the artists who created the installations. These are the folks that dare to dream big. More important, these are the folks that put their imagination into action.

The kiddo’s actually took note pads and had a few questions prepared. They were nervous about what questions to ask the artists. But, as with all things creative and inspiring, the questions were organic as the kids immersed themselves into the creations. “Why did you do it this way?” they’d ask. “What were you thinking when you did that!?” “Do you really love raccoons?”.

We’ll post some of the videos of the day at a later time, but for now we just want to share our experience at digiPlaySpace 2016 and encourage you to check it out too!

What is the digiPlaySpace?

Good Question!

THE digiPlaySpace exhibit, held at the TIFF Bell Lightbox, is an interactive and digital adventure that is both engaging and educational! The exhibit is filled with interactive installations that include, but are not limited to, virtual reality games, green screen escapades, robotic & circuit building activities. Kids are encouraged to touch, feel, and interact with the installations. This is not a hands-off program!

Sensory Imaging Artist: Adrian Sas | USA – “Sensory Imaging engages children (including those with sensory processing disorders) in an immersive experience that encourages sensory exploration and nurtures their capacity to learn through discovery. As children interact with Sensory Imaging’s billowing fabric, the mterial appears to change hue, radiating colour at the point of contact, rendering a four-dimensional map of their actions.” – TIFF

As soon as we walked through the main door, the kids were taken with this Sensory Imaging installation. In fact, in order to get them to move on, we had to promise them that there was more fabulous installations to be explored!

Xavier enjoyed this installation too!

Trackoons

Their next stop was with the folks who created Trackoons. Trackoons is a multiplayer game (up to 8 people!) that has raccoons face off in a race throughout Toronto. It was amazing to watch a bunch of 7-year-olds become fiercely competitive playing this game.

Again, we had to lure them away with the promise of more!

Trackoons at digiPlaySpace | Photo Courtesy of TIFF

The Chooseatron

Addy is working through the story elements with the creator Jerry Belich

The Chooseatron was a big hit as well. If you’re having a difficult time engaging your child with reading – this just might be your go-to installation! The Choosatron is wi-fi connected and facilitates interactive and social reading. In essence, the child can pick elements of the story and an adventure is created based on their choices. This blends digital and analogue storytelling, and the kids walk away with something tangible – a story of their own.

The Chooseatron | Artist: Jerry Belich

Once you’ve made all of your choices, you receive a print-out of a story! This was the print out of Addy’s story! It was super scary, but she reassured Jerry (the creator) that she could handle it! : )

Augmented Reality Sandbox

It never fails, kids love to dig into their adventures….

including Xavier!

The kiddos landed here for awhile. The Augmented Reality Sandbox is filled with real sand that looks like it is alive and moving! The impact was remarkable. The sand appears to be moving due to the use of an elevation colour map that creates contour lines and simulates water. The goal is to teach geographic, geologic and hydrologic concepts, such as how to read a topography map, the meaning of contour lines, watersheds and so on.

Kids amazed. Mom – gobsmacked!

Other adventures we loved…..

The kiddo’s LOVED playing around with the Green Screen. In 5 minutes they traveled from London to the Galaxy!

LOL Olympics | Stop Motion Experience

The Flippaper | Artist: Jeremie Cortial, Roman Miletitch | France The kiddos were able to create their own digital pinball machines through art! the kiddos were able to draw their own pinball using difference coloured markers and then actually PLAY the game themselves!

Needless to say, all of us had an absolute BLAST at this years digiPlaySpace event. There simply wasn’t enough time to hit up every installation!

digiPlaySpace 2016 is a must attend. This year it is running for 7 weeks from March 5th – April 24th, 2016. For more information, and to check out all of the fabulous installations we missed, visit them here .

We were blessed with wonderful weather and thirsty neighbours this Saturday 🙂

I am so very proud to say that the kiddos brought in over $1300 for the Bravery Bead program at SickKids. THANK YOU to our neighbours, family and friends for your support. It is such an incredible testament to the people we’ve been fortunate to surround ourselves with.

The neighbourhood children should be very proud of their efforts.

Much love and thanks to everyone who has shared our information, made a donation, supported our vision and voice, and offered the children encouragement with a big thumbs up. The kids at SickKids work hard to get these beads and we’re proud to have the opportunity to support the program.

$1300 is alot of beads and alot of happiness. We can’t wait to share the news with everyone! But, for right now we are sitting with a cup of lemonade and basking in our happiness 🙂

Raising $300 for SickKids is a big deal for us, but we know that it is a modest contribution to the larger scope. Understanding this has led us to discuss what program our donation would impact positively and significantly.

The SickKids Foundation has a Bravery Bead Fund. As soon as we heard this, we knew where the donations would be best directed.

The Bravery Bead Program allows children who wish to participate, the chance to collect a different bead for each procedure or event while visiting the hospital for treatment. The goal of the program is to make a necklace with colourful beads that represent the unique and special journey of a particular child and to make something that they are proud of and want to share with family and friends. Beads are not given as a reward or something to be earned but rather to represent each child’s individual story through treatment.

WOW beads are special beads given after a particularly difficult procedure or on a particularly difficult day or perhaps just a first time for accomplishing something as simple as getting out of bed. Each child selects his/her own WOW bead from the drawer.

During our stay at SickKids Hospital our daughter collected quite a few beads. At times it was the reason she would see a test or procedure through. When you walk the halls at the hospital, kids wear their beads, albeit on IV poles or wheelchairs, with a great deal of pride.

Each bead has a story and no strings of beads look the same.

We hope that you approve of the decision to donate the funds to the Bravery Bead Program. For more information, click here.

The kiddos on the street have all been given a blank piece of paper so to scribe the invitations to the neighbours. This is the first, in a series of invites that we are going to photocopy and distribute, door to door, in a few weeks. This is the first step in our homespun lemonade stand’s guerilla marketing campaign 🙂